From NW Spain through most of Europe (including Thrace region of Turkey; Kryštufek and Vohralík, 2001, but missing from the Alps, Portugal, and most of Sweden, Norway, Italy, and Spain; Mitchell-Jones et al., 1999), across Siberia to Ussuri region and Korea (Won and Smith, 1999), north to about 65°E in European Russia and Yakutia, south to N edge of Caucasus and N Mongolia (Gromov and Erbajeva, 1995); isolated ranges in NW China (Xinjiang) and throughout S and NE China (from SE Xizang in west to Heilongjiang and Nei Mongol in far northeast; Wang, 2003, and Zhang et al., 1997); south to NW Vietnam (Dang et al., 1994), N Burma (Anthony, 1941; Ellerman, 1961), and NE India (Meghalaya and Nagaland; Agrawal, 2000). Island distributions include Britain; Texel, Terschelling, and Ameland off coast of Netherlands in Wadden Sea (Mostert, 1992b; Naber, 1982); Japan (Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Tsushima), Quelpart Isl (Korea), and Taiwan (M.-J. Yu, 1996); see Corbet (1978c) for details, and map by Gromov and Erbajeva (1995). Possibly introduced to the Japanese Isls because no fossils have ever been found while all the Japanese endemic muroids are represented by Pleistocene and Holocene fossils (Kowalski and Hasegawa, 1976). The species also occurs in Great Britain where it was also probably introduced (Sutcliffe and Kowalski, 1976; Yalden, 1999).

Status:

IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Comments:

Reviewed by Corbet (1978c, 1984). Chromosomal information reported by Jüdes (1981), Zima (1983), Lungeanu et al. (1984), Solleder et al. (1984), and Schmid et al. (1987). Results of morphometric analyses of selected European samples and its significance to applying subspecific names to the geographic variation reported by Kratochvíl and Simionescu (1983). Alveolar pattern of molar roots and comparisons with those of Rattus and Apodemus reported by Gallego (1974). Phallic morphology of Chinese samples described by Yang and Fang (1988) in context of assessing relationships among Chinese murines. Haffner (1996) described a tendon-locking mechanism in M. minutus that is engaged when the middle phalanx is bent so that less muscular energy is expended when twigs or stalks are grasped. This structure should be compared with digits in species of the related Vandeleuria and Vernaya.